13 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 302 2021 Research Data Management Data-management plans (DMPs) contain a wealth of information about research projects, including, amongst other things, project plans for access, preservation, and storage. Historically, DMPs have been two-page narrative documents that outline proposed data practices during a research project and detail where investigators will deposit research outputs upon project completion. Over the past few years, there has been a concerted push towards creating machine-actionable DMPs (maDMPs).8 These next-generation DMPs are designed to move past the static narrative format and facilitate the creation of a living document that can guide research by integrating data-management activities with related systems and workflows in the research life cycle. Demonstrating their support for this work, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) recently recommended that researchers utilize PIDs for their data outputs and generate DMPs that allow for automated information exchange (maDMPs).9 PIDifying the DMP Utilizing identifiers within DMPs allows information within a DMP to be shared across stakeholders, linking metadata, repositories, and institutions, and allowing for notifications and verification, with reporting taking place in real time. A vital goal of this system is to reduce the burden on researchers by generating automated updates to a plan and facilitating seamless integration with systems and groups that support research. Networked DMPs are a vehicle for reporting on the intentions and outcomes of a research project that enable information exchange across relevant parties and systems. They contain an inventory of crucial information about a project and its outputs (not just data). With a change history, stakeholders can query for updated details on the project over its lifetime.
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